Sources: Next Call Of Duty Won't Have A Solo Campaign, May Have Battle Royale

This fall's Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be multiplayer-only, lacking the kind of single-player campaign that has been a key component of the annual series for over a decade, two sources familiar with the game tell Kotaku, corroborating a report published earlier today at Polygon.

One of those sources also echoed a report from top Call of Duty information-broker Charlie Intel saying that the new game will have a battle royale mode.

That's the kind of last-player-standing mode that's been taking over gaming for the past year, what with the success of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Fortnite: Battle Royale and myriad competitors. So far, no big-budget game studio has added a Battle Royale mode to a big franchise series, but it has seemed like only a matter of time before it hits a Call of Duty or a Battlefield, a Division or a Destiny.

Details are murky, and Call of Duty publisher Activision isn't talking. "We don't comment on rumour and speculation," it responded via email to Kotaku today. Recent Call of Duty games have been bursting with modes, including the increasingly the increasingly elaborate Zombies modes pioneered by Black Ops 4's lead studio Treyarch.

Black Ops 3 already offered two-player co-op in that game's campaign.

According to Polygon, as the multi-year development cycle of Black Ops 4 moved toward the game's October release date, "it became evident that development on the single-player campaign wouldn't be completed."

Activision has shown some recent interest in re-jiggering the content offered for its Call of Duty games. Two years ago, it offered a remaster of the classic Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to PlayStation owners alongside the release of that year's big CoD, offering it as a standalone purchase many months later.

The most recent game in the series, Call of Duty: WWII, saw a drop in the number of multiplayer maps offered at the game's launch. Given the buzz Call of Duty games get for their multiplayer, it's been common for gaming pundits to speculate about if or when Activision would drop campaigns from the games.

Activision will officially reveal more details about the new Black Ops during an event on May 17 internationally. It's slated for release in Australia on October 12 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

Titanfall 2 proved that players didn't want a very good single player campaign.

CoD battle royale is that moment when your dad tries to use a meme, killing it forever.

Splatoon would make for an amazing BR game though. Each squid gets their own ink, and the levels could have an amazing structural verticality, emergent like an accessible building mechanic from fortnite.

Titanfall 2's single player campaign was awesome, but that game was killed by releasing in the same month as a few massive games, from memory it was Battlefield 1 and COD. The shooter crowd just skipped it.

Marketing directly to the target audience - good business move. Doesn't affect my decision to not purchase it.
Good luck to Treyarch, I always found their iteration of the IP to be bland and boring anyway.

I actually enjoyed the over-the-top, action-riddled, military conspiracy narratives of Black Ops 1 and 3. Take that away and I have no interest in it. Taking away the single player campaign and focusing entirely on the multi is like firing the writers at a film studio and letting the special effect team go wild with the budget: you get Transformers 4, Suckerpunch, and at least half of the Fast 'n Furious franchise.

Isn't it more of a case of a story mode costs a lot of money to make. If say the majority of players only buy it for MP sure you're loosing customers but the savings you make will probably out weigh it.

Sounds to me to be more of a leak to gauge a reaction from the fan base than anything else.

I can't see them dropping the campaign altogether, but maybe moving to more of a Destiny style open campaign to compete at your own leisure, solo or co-op, while jumping in and out of competitive multiplayer, thus being deemed 'online/multiplayer only'.

Sure the COD campaigns got a little stale in recent years, but I really enjoyed the campaign in BLOPS 3 and Infinite Warfare (which was pretty good sci-fi as far as blockbuster sci-fi goes). I didn't play WW1 thought, and I think that one was improving as well.

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